Monday, January 17, 2011

A lot has happened, including the router in my house dieing and leaving me without internet on my laptop.

There were the craft shows almost every weekend in November and through mid December, last minute Christmas shopping because I seem to never learn, my niece was here for a week, mandatory over time at work so that we could keep caught up and last weekend my friend and I drove over to her parents in St. Cloud so that we could volunteer at the Disney half and whole marathons. Another mile stone that happened the last week of December was that my beloved grandmother celebrated her 95th birthday. We had dinner at the house with my family and my uncle even took the day off work so that he could do some projects on her apartment and so that he could spend time with her.

The holidays were nice, the family was all spoiled and we feel very lucky that we could make it what we did. Unfortunately my sister and brother-in-law got sick a couple days before Christmas and this delayed their trip to see their new baby nephew by a day, but it did mean that they got to spend all of Christmas day with us instead of spending 4 1/2 hours in the car in the middle of the day. Thanks to my family, I have now collected most of the components needed to create my new computer set up, using my 32" TV as a monitor and a wireless keyboard and mouse so hopefully I will be logging in more often.

I have been keeping a mental note of my resolutions that I plan to see through to a minimum of my birthday. I was a little lack in my watching what I ate and have not lost any weight, but I have also managed to keep of the 10-15 pounds that I typically will gain this time of the year. Other than the marathon, I have not had the opportunity to go and volunteer in the community. I did help my sister's department raise funds for their adopt a families and my department participated in a toy drive between 21 departments and we gathered over 3000 toys for three local charities.

There was happy news on the job front this December as well. I was given a promotion with a sizable raise which will help me afford to save funds as well a take a vacation. I know the goal was take a vacation by my birthday but I think I will be willing to hold off on it to go on an even bigger trip. My best friend and I are planning a trip to NYC for one of the first two weeks of December. I understand this may be stupid because everything will be more expensive but it is going to be a trip that neither of us will forget. She has always wanted to go there, and I have always wanted to go during the holiday season. We are going to be complete tourists and get to do what we want when we want. We want to see a show, eat out, see museums, and do all of that fun stuff.

Well that is all from my neck of the woods. I hope to keep up with this more so that the posts aren't so long and winded and I can share the good and the bad as it happens.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

The past few weeks have been awfully busy here in Florida. I have been baking and crafting with my sister. We have many festivities at work for Halloween and there was a Halloween baby shower for my sister's sister-in-law this past week across the state. At work there was even a baking contest/bake sale where I got first and third place in the tastiest category. I made Pioneer Woman's chocolate sheet cake in cupcakes and topped with my peanut butter buttercream which earned me first and then I made miniature versions of the pumpkin creme pies from Tasty Kitchen which earned third. In addition to these I submitted peanut butter and jelly cupcakes. On top of making these items for the bake off, I made a batch of the creme pies, chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, as well as a six inch cake for the baby shower this weekend. Once we returned to this coast on Sunday afternoon, I baked a quick red velvet cake to make a batch of cake balls and cup cake bites for two birthdays at work.

As the world knows, Sunday was Halloween. We got ready by buying candy and decking the dogs in their holiday gear. Fame has a wonderful orange jester collar with jingle bells on the points. Rudy dressed as a bucking bull, complete with a stuffed cowboy riding on his back holding on for dear life. The only problem was that they did not get to show off their outfits to many people. As a whole our neighborhood does not get that many trick-or-treater's but this year was especially slow. I believe that we got 10 kids tops on our street. We closed up shop by 8:30 and went in and enjoyed our evening after a long weekend.

There is not much else going on from here. I am planning on spending this week doing laundry, cleaning out my DVR and spending time with my dog. Since I have been so busy in the kitchen he hasn't gotten to spend much time with me and I can tell he misses playing around the house when I get home from work.

Thanks for listening to me and I promise to be better about posting, this is all new to me.

Monday, October 11, 2010

I had an appointment last Monday with my oncologist and was told that everything is still looking good, no biopsies and everything came back alright from the last ones. He did mention that losing weight is going to help keep the cancer at bay and is probably to blame for it in the first place. He mentioned that there might be some local exercise groups for cancer survivors that I may be able to join for little to no money. I am hoping I can find one so that I can get some activity that isn't just me trying to do stuff on my own. This was good news to follow a wonderful weekend at a craft show with my sister.

Stitch Rock rocked this weekend! We had fun seeing all of the people and getting to shop around. Jessi and I like these shows because at some of the bigger shows, we get to see the crafters we like being around but only see a couple times a year. We have even gotten a little following of people in the area that show up to the shows just to buy some pickles or jam. We bought art, got baby shower gifts, and had a blast. There is not much more going on here. I have just been working and starting to plan for bake off at work this Halloween.

This week I will be preparing a couple different desserts for a bake off for a picnic that my sister's department is throwing. Any ideas of what I could make that will blow their socks off?

Friday, October 1, 2010

My week of peace and quiet was not so peaceful. I spent my week driving my sister around and making things for work. Nothing worked out as planned in regards to that part of the week. This week has been spent prepping for my sister's first craft show of the season. Tomorrow my brother-in-law, sister and I will be embarking in a 4 1/2 hour car ride to the other coast of Florida for Stitch Rock. The car ride down the turnpike should be fun and enjoyable as we always have fun together. I just feel sorry for my brother-in-law, he has to deal with my sister and me in a confined space for hours. The two of us have a tendency to act a little weird when together for an amount of time, not to mention all of our inside jokes and crazy sister antics.

I spent Monday and Tuesday cutting out 74 burp clothes out of flannel for my sister to sew so that we could sell them with the rest of our items. I have spent the better part of my Thursday prepping by cleaning jars and putting fabric tops on them. We have made in preparation for the crafting season 23 dozen jars of pickles, jams, apple butter, pickled okra and a few other items canned items. We are hoping that this year rocks and that people come and have fun at the craft shoe. Oh and this year, they have BBQ!

That is all for now, I will post how the shoe goes later as that it what has been consuming my life this week.

Thanks for stopping by!Emmy

P.S.- If you are in the Delray Beach area on the 2nd, stop by Stitch Rock at Old School Square. The doors are open 12-6pm.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

To me there is nothing better than the occasional peace and quiet. I love reflecting in quiet on my day. In the evenings when I come home from work, I walk the dog and then love nothing more than to change into my comfy clothes and sit on the couch and read in complete silence for about 45 minutes. This week I will not have anybody to come home to other than my animals and I couldn't be more happy. My fur babies have been keeping me busy and entertained and showered in Love. The best part of all is that they don't talk during the shows I like to watch on TV.

I am taking this time to start my diet so that I can loose the 50 lbs I pledged to drop by my next birthday. I am have also started thinking about where I want to take my vacation. I would love to go see snow as I have only seen it once in my life but I don't know about that. I would also love to go to a small southern town.

Well that is all for now. I am getting ready for the last walk of the evening and get some sleep for the busy week ahead.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

As I sit here and think about what I have changed since I started I started this little experiment of mine. I have only lost 2 lbs, but am formulating my game plan. I have decided to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity so that I can do it on the weekends. This weekend I will also be partaking in a Junior Achievement bowl-a-thon with some of my coworkers. I have also pick a church to check out in my local area. I have also started walking more with my dogs out in the neighborhood. I sit here in my room with my dog on my lap excited for these changes. I am hoping this will have a wonderful impact on my world and life.

Not much more to report on this end as there has not been much progress and there is not much new in my life that is exciting.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

I spend the better part of fall helping my sister with the craft shows that she signs up for. Now these are not your grandmother's craft shows. They are usually called Indie Craft shows and they are awesome (except for the few stinky hippies, which scare me a little). The main thing that my sister started with and is still a big seller for her are her pickles. We sell four different types of actual pickles along with some other pickled items and jams. While my sister has branched out to other non edible items, it is the pickles that consume our time and keep the customers looking for us.

I spent last saturday and today in our church's kitchen making pickles. It has gotten to the point where pickles have officially started taking over at least half of our weekends. Next weekend I will be spending my sunday in the church kitchen again canning more pickles and making jams. The first weekend in October marks our first show of the season. We will spend every weekend either selling our wears or making wears from now until the second weekend of December.

I love making pickles and selling pickles with my sister as it allows me to get out of the house and spend time with my sister, who is my best friend. This does pose a problem with my resolution to change things around by my 27th birthday. I think it will throw a new dynamic into everything and make me focus a little more on what I truly want in life or it could send me into a tail spin. Only time will tell.